Lengthy renovation forces tenants to share bathroom, forgo cooking

Posted
Friday, December 1, 2017 12:01 am

Apartment 1B was designated a communal bathroom for tenants of 3115 Sedgwick Ave., whose apartments were undergoing renovations. Those affected felt disgusted at the conditions of the bathroom, which often suffered from a lack of upkeep.

Julius Constantine Motal

While the renovations at 3115 Sedgwick Ave., are meant to give tenants new bathrooms and kitchens, the living conditions during the work are far from ideal. Tenants describe going for weeks at a time with nothing more than hot plates for cooking, and a communal bathroom on the first floor that suffered from a lack of upkeep.

Julius Constantine Motal

Jacqueline Estevez talks about the experience of having to live without a bathroom during lengthy renovations in her apartment. The building designated an apartment on the first floor as a communal bathroom for tenants affected by the renovations, which was often dirty.

Julius Constantine Motal

While most of the major renovations are done at 3115 Sedgwick Ave., some jobs remain incomplete. What was supposed to take a couple of weeks took several months, which left tenant Jacqueline Estevez without a bathroom for half that time, and without a kitchen the other half.

Julius Constantine Motal

While most of the major renovations are done at 3115 Sedgwick Ave., some jobs remain incomplete. What was supposed to take a couple of weeks took several months, which left tenant Jacqueline Estevez without a bathroom for half that time, and without a kitchen the other half.

Julius Constantine Motal

Jacqueline Estevez stuffs paper towels at the base of a pipe in her bathroom to prevent critters from crawling up into her apartment at 3115 Sedgwick Ave. Renovations in the apartment building have been ongoing for months, leaving tenants without a bathroom for half the time, and without a kitchen the other half.

Julius Constantine Motal

The superintendent opens an apartment in 3115 Sedgwick Ave., to show how renovations are progressing.

Julius Constantine Motal

A pot of food rests on a stove in the newly renovated kitchen of an apartment at 3115 Sedgwick Avenue.

Julius Constantine Motal

By Zak Kostro

It’s Thanksgiving eve. The late-afternoon sun does its best to cast rays on the drab brick exterior of 3115 Sedgwick Ave.

Inside, on dirty, cracked tile floors, workers move about the ground level, carrying tools and ladders. Plastic covers apartment doorways. Giant boxes line hallways, as the sound of drills rips through the air.

Yet, this building is far from empty. For months, Jacqueline Estevez has had to endure more than the construction noise. She was forced to share a single bathroom not only with her neighbors from 10 other apartments, but also with construction workers. At times Estevez wouldn’t even bathe because conditions inside became unbearable, with feces on the ground and water often shut off.

“I used a bucket for number one and number two, as disgusting as it sounds,” she said.

Estevez moved in last May, but said she was told nothing about renovations. The Morgan Group, which owns the building, told her later it had sent certified letters informing tenants about the work. But that was last year — before Estevez moved in.

“They lied to us,” she said. “They never told us anything when we signed the lease.”

The Morgan Group bought the property in 2014 for $7.5 million, applying for building department permits the following year, according to Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. The abysmal conditions have caught the attention of almost every agency that handles housing complaints, including the city’s health department and the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force.

Tenants have learned The Morgan Group intends to apply for a major capital improvement increase with the state homes and community renewal department. If granted, it would permanently raise the rents of rent-regulated tenants by hundreds of dollars a year.

Some tenant advocates call such tactics “harassment by construction” — using highly intrusive, and maybe even unnecessary, renovation as a way of forcing long-time tenants out of their apartments so owners can raise rent. If current tenants stay, that rent inches up typically no more than 2 percent. But if they move out and new residents move in, rent could jump as much as 20 percent.

Estevez was told it would take 10 days to renovate the kitchen and another 10 for the bathroom. She took time off from work to make sure workers stayed on schedule. But the kitchen ended up taking eight weeks, she said — and it’s still not done.

“They left holes everywhere,” Estevez said. “They don’t clean up after themselves. I had to go after them myself. It took them three days to put a door knob on.”

In the bathroom, grout is coming off the tiles.

“You could see the dust, the smell,” she said. “You could feel it.”

Even more, Estevez suffers from asthma, and during construction, had to visit her doctor twice when dust exacerbated her condition.

City inspectors didn’t come until “after the fact,” Estevez said, and The Morgan Group “treated us like dirt.”

The Morgan Group refused to comment.

Estevez claims her hardwood floors have been ruined, pointing to nails in warped boards, jaggedly protruding.

She recalled one day walking into her unfinished bathroom, and through a hole, she could see “everything downstairs” in the apartment below hers. For some time, there also was a hole in the ceiling, through which Estevez could look out at the sky.

Another time, she came home to exposed electrical wires, not knowing whether they were live.

Without a kitchen, Estevez said she was given a small hot plate. With no other option, she spent heavily on takeout and bottled water.

During summer, heat and mosquitoes became unbearable, with temperatures in the apartment reaching 110 degrees, Estevez said. She recalled using a plastic bag to insulate her bathroom just so she could turn on her air conditioner and keep out the bugs.

“It was a nightmare,” Estevez said.

But the abysmal conditions aren’t the only reason Estevez is outraged. She questions whether the renovations were even necessary.

“If they were going to change the pipes, you didn’t have to do major renovations,” she said. “There are people who won’t even have a kitchen to cook Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.”

The building’s superintendent Leke Nicaj, however, tells a different story.

“Everybody has a kitchen tonight to cook,” he sad. “That’s the good news.”

Nicaj led reporters into an apartment where a fridge sat in the hallway. He pointed out new wooden cabinets. In a corner of the living room, a microwave and hot plate lay atop a small table, crammed into a corner.

Dinowitz has reached out to several agencies that handle housing complaints trying to find relief for the Sedgwick Avenue residents. And he’s hoping an upcoming meeting hosted by the state homes and community renewal department will offer a path toward better conditions.

“Tenants have to be willing to assert and stand up for their rights,” he said.

And while they’re often reluctant to do that for fear of eviction by retaliatory landlords, “the circumstances here are particularly egregious,” Dinowitz said. “They have essentially deprived people for extended periods of time of living in something even halfway decent.”

If no kitchens or bathrooms were not enough, last September the health department discovered four different measurements for lead exceeding acceptable EPA standards, Dinowitz said.

The state’s Department of Homes and Community Renewal — which focuses on more than 2 million rent-regulated tenants in some 45,000 buildings in New York City — launched an investigation into 3115 Sedgwick last month, a spokeswoman said. As part of that investigation, the department has scheduled a conference with tenants and the owner on Dec. 8.

This isn’t the first time The Morgan Group has done this. The New York Post recently reported similar conditions at another Bronx property owned by the company at 60 E. 196th St.

In some ways, at least recently, things have gotten better — slightly. Estevez pointed out there’s now a representative from the fire department watching for safety at the building, and some of the debris has been cleared.

But at the end of the day, “We’re human beings,” Estevez said. “It doesn’t matter what my rent is. It doesn’t matter if I pay $10 or $10,000. We have rights and shouldn’t be treated this way.”

Have a look up the narrow pathway connecting Arlington Avenue and Kappock Street in Spuyten Duyvil and one might see a steep trail of hideous, uneven pavement snaking between warped side rails bent out of shape. It’s like something out of a Gothic fairy tale.